Palace striker Benteke's double beats old club Liverpool

Liverpool: Liverpool old-boy Christian Benteke stunned his former club with both Crystal Palace goals in a 2-1 win at Anfield on Sunday denting the home side's top-four Premier League ambitions.

The reds however pushed the self destruct button just before half time, when Lovren let Cabaye skip past him and cross over for Benteke to smash in an equaliser.

A home win for Manchester City in midweek would take them above Liverpool into third but also deal a blow to United's chances of overtaking Klopp's side, while a Tottenham victory would make it more hard for Arsenal to do the same.

Palace, who have recently beaten Chelsea and Arsenal, moved up four places to 12th and should now be safe from relegation after a sixth win in eight games.

But with both chasing clubs facing away derbies this week Can admits Manchester City, now one place below Liverpool in fourth, and second-placed Tottenham could do them huge favours.

But, for all the plaudits heading Coutinho's way, the sub-plot involved Benteke, a man who now has six more goals for Palace this season than the 10 he managed in his solitary year at Anfield.

"They'd have expected one shock, maybe, but we've done three shocks in as many weeks".

"I give the players a huge amount of credit for the way they defended and how they exposed the weaknesses of Liverpool defensively, which in the end they couldn't cope with".

Palace brought Sam Allardyce in as manager in late December because of his history in keeping teams in the Premier League, and it has proved to be a shrewd appointment.

"Crystal Palace are a good side but we dominated the game".

It's understandable to see why Mamadou Sakho would celebrate a win over Liverpool, even though he is technically still with them.

Benteke and Sakho probably have an agenda against Liverpool and they showed it. Sakho should be off; no player is bigger than the club.

"We were not at our best", manager Juergen Klopp said. "We must have the confidence and stick together, helping each other out in moments like this", the Dutchman told the club's official website.

Writing in his column for Sky Sports, Merson said: "The Gunners have games in hand and if they can get maximum points from them they are going to be right back in it". The final goal in that game came from Adam Lallana who scored for Liverpool with a gorgeous volley which found it's way into the goal.